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 Twelve Sure-Fire Ways to Wreck Your Faith Part 1 of 5 in a Series By: Dr. Skip Myers web posted February 1, 2008 COLUMNIST – It just seems that we are determined in our lives to make a wreck out of something. We multitask while we are driving in an effort to tempt the driving skills of those around us. We talk on the phone, read, eat, and admire our image in the rearview mirror all in an effort to see if we can wreck our car and the cars of those around us. We exclude sound counsel and the Lord from the major decisions of life in hopes that one day we will look back and regret the decisions we made. Credit card purchases, marriage and jobs are just a few of the critical decisions in which we ignore sound counsel and the Lord’s instruction. Not a very positive start to this article is it? But it is true that we seem determined to make a wreck of things. When disaster strikes, and it will, we then begin the “blame game.” Blaming others or even ourselves very seldom solves the problem. What it does is blind us to what really needs to take place in order for the situation to change. Over the next few weeks we will be examining twelve things that we all do that add to the disasters we create in life. These are offered in hopes that we can recognize their presence in a situation and avoid the resulting chaos they can create. Call them “Life’s Dirty Dozen” if you will, but no matter what we call them if we can learn to identify them and deal effectively with them we can avoid at least some of the wrecks of life. #1: Deception: Life is filled with lies and deceptions. Making decisions and running our lives based on deceptive information can only lead to bad things. I truly believe that our ears have become so attuned to lies and half-truths that it has become difficult for most to accept truth when they hear it. Truth is deemed as harsh and cruel or out-dated and old-fashioned. This is itself a deceptive point of view. Deception is very deceptive in nature. (How’s that for deep thinking!) Life’s greatest deceptions don’t have to sound awful. They can be half-truths that fit easily into our current belief system so that we don’t have to make any major changes to our way of thinking and acting. We love to corrupt the truth of God so that we can remain the same or justify our current way of thinking. All that is needed is just a pinch of God and a cup of us and we have the recipe for deceptive thinking. The only weapon against deception is truth. Jesus said in John 8:32 “And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” The truth of God has the ability to free us from life’s deceptions. Take His standard as it is found in the Bible—don’t edit it or play with—accept it as truth and ask for help in applying it to your life. Wrecks don’t happen because of truth—only because of bad information coming from deceptions. #2: Distress: Wrecks in life defeat us. Hopelessness gives birth to a defeated attitude. If you really think about it, life can be rather distressful. It can create in us a negative attitude that makes wrecks a self-fulfilling occurrence. We make decisions and live our lives expecting there to be disaster and distress. Hopelessness and negativity becomes our mindset. We continually feel as though life is “kicking us while we are down” and we begin to believe that we will never get up again. Negativity and distress is like a red shirt in a laundry load of whites. All it takes is just a small amount of red dye and the entire load is ruined. All it takes is just small amount of belief that life is hopeless and cease to live and are satisfied with simply existing. Now, apply this kind of attitude to your belief in God. You will easily believe that He has abandoned you and forgotten you. You see how deception aides distress and vice versa? Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” It is the Lord’s heart that you know truth and that the truth of His love for you will allow you to live in hope. Remember, human hope always contains an element of uncertainty. When we speak of God’s hope there is never an ounce of uncertainty about it because His hope rests in His truth. Living in a growing knowledge of the truth and allowing that to create in you a new sense of hope is a great way to begin avoiding some of the wrecks in life. A great place to grow and learn is church. That way you can join the rest of us trying to avoid the wrecks that are out there waiting for us. I’ll see you Sunday. ©
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